Brighter Journeys Gives Away Its First Item

Brighter Journeys purchases a special bike for a little 8-year-old girl from Drums

Juliann Tompkins suffers from a rare disease called Cockayne syndrome, and her mom says it could kill her by her 12th birthday.

She hasn’t been able to ride a bike, but now with this special new tricycle, they can go on family outings together, and have more special time with her outside.

Her mom says the Valley Elementary/Middle School student is already losing the ability to crawl, and their insurance company had denied the bike.

“We had to go through two appeal processes which we were both denied for, saying it’s not medically necessary,” says mom Christina Tompkins. “They said that Juliann could ride a typical bicycle. As you can see, Juliann can’t walk on her own and she does have disabilities, and she only crawls, so this bike is medically necessary for her.”

A club on campus for people interested in speech pathology and related careers, NSSLHA, found out about Juliann while volunteering with the Brighter Journeys organization.

Today, they raised at least $3,800 for Brighter Journeys. The money raised will help Brighter Journeys to assist other special needs individual within the community.

Brighter Journeys would like to introduce you to an organization called Hosts For Hospitals for anyone who goes to see specialists outside of our area. This program is perfect for people on a budget and is a great choice if the Ronald McDonald House is not an option.

One of our parents recently got to make use of the program for her son and she stayed with some lovely people while her son was at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. For more information about Jeannine Marie's visit to Philadelphia utilizing Hosts for Hospitals please feel free to contact Jeannine at www.facebook.com/jeannine.morrissey.9